[child-rights] New UNICEF report on realising indigenous rights in Latin America

UNICEF Press release

San Jose, Costa Rica/Panama October 18, 2004 ­ Nils Kastberg, the Regional
Director of UNICEF in Latin America and the Caribbean, presented today the
publication, Equality with Dignity: towards new forms of action with
indigenous children in Latin America. The document has been presented at
the VI Conference of Ministers and Officials of Children and Adolescents,
being held in San Jose, Costa Rica on 18-19 October 2004, in the context
of the XII Ibero-American Summit of Presidents and Heads of State, set for
November of this year.

The publication has been completed by UNICEF in collaboration with a
consultative indigenous group, composed of 12 leaders from the Quichua,
Kuna, Coconuco, Nahualt, Wayuu, and Kaqchikel ethnicities. The document is
a tool aimed at governments, indigenous organizations and civil society on
how to articulate programs to render effective the rights of indigenous
communities in the region and how to reach the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), not only on a national level but also at the community level
as well. "The highest rates of infant mortality of the Latin American
countries can be found within the indigenous communities. This puts into
stark relief the imperative necessity of attending to the rights of these
communities, otherwise we shall not achieve the MDGs", declared Kastberg
during the Conference.

The publication offers an overview of the situation of exclusion in which
the indigenous populations of Latin America live, due to the lack of
access to sanitation services, protection, and basic education. In Panama,
95% of the indigenous population is poor, as compared to 37% of the
non-indigenous; in Mexico 80% of indigenous people live in poverty, as
opposed to 18% of the non-indigenous. This pattern of inequity is repeated
throughout the region. The inequalities, rooted in discrimination, have as
a consequence the violation of the rights of children, impeding their
complete development, both on an individual level and a community level.
In the year 2000, three out of five countries with the largest indigenous
presence of the region (Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru) registered the
highest mortality rates of children under five years old. The exclusion in
fields such as education is reflected in the rates of school repetition,
which in Guatemala reaches 90% among indigenous primary school students.
In Bolivia, this phenomenon means that a child who speaks an indigenous
language has twice the probability of repeating a grade level as a student
who speaks Spanish.

The publication highlights the rich patrimony of the region, from the
point of view of culture and ethnic diversity, making special reference
towards the linguistic variants as the clearest reflection of this
pluralism. Many governments of the region have currently established
policies, developed over the last two decades, which reflect, in part, the
diversity and richness of their nations. Notwithstanding, these countries
still require an open and participatory dialogue in which the Indigenous
peoples themselves establish their priorities and strategies, based on
their own vision of the world, to satisfy their rights already recognised
in national and international legislation. "Today a new focus is necessary
to assure that the 40 million indigenous people of Latin America see their
rights fulfilled, especially those of children and adolescents. This new
course should be reflected in sub-regional policies and multi-lateral
decisions that take into account the cross-border.reality of these
communities in an integral manner," said Nils Kastberg, during the
presentation of the new document.

Equality with dignity: towards new forms of action with indigenous
children in Latin America represents the fulfillment of the promise from
UNICEF during the V Ibero-American Summit in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in 2003.



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